Steve Enewold, Northrop Gurmman's vice president and manager of the BAMS Unmanned Aircraft System, and the U.S. Navy's Marci Spiotta, sign the frame of the first fuselage that will go inside a fleet MQ-4C Triton on Nov. 13, 2012, in Moss Point. (April Havens/ahavens@al.com)

The company's 70-employee Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point has already built several of the Triton fuselages for testing, but Tuesday marked the construction of the first fuselage that will go inside a fleet MQ-4C.

The fuselage celebrated Tuesday will go inside a Triton that will be delivered in October 2014, leaders said. After Moss Point constructs the fuselage, it will be sent to Palmdale, Calif., for final assembly.

The MQ-4C BAMS -- unmanned aerial vehicles the Navy will use for surveillance -- are based on the Air Force's RQ-4B Global Hawk drone, which also began life at the Moss Point facility near Trent Lott International Airport.

The Navy's version of the drone has a 130-foot wingspan and is equipped with a multi-function active-sensor radar system, which is mounted on a pedestal at the bottom of the aircraft to offer a 360-degree view.

The Triton will be able to cover more than 2.7 million square miles in a single mission, company leaders said, with a range of 2,000 nautical miles.

Navy officials have said the UAVs will use one-tenth of the fuel and 25 percent less manpower than manned surveillance options.

They can go up to 11.3 miles high for a better view for up to 24 hours, compared to only about 25,000 feet in a manned P-3 Orion aircraft.

This MQ-4C Triton fuselage, built for the Navy by Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, will be used for testing. (April Havens/ahavens@al.com)

In conjunction with the P-8A Poseidon, the Triton will replace the aging P-3 aircraft, said Steve Enewold, Northrop's vice president and manager of the BAMS Unmanned Aircraft System.

"It's a very important capability for the Navy," he said, noting it'll be an eye in the sky for drug smuggling, counterinsurgency and a variety of other missions.

Northrop's $2 billion BAMS contract, first awarded in April 2008, included research and development and construction of two test vehicles and three fleet vehicles.

The three operational vehicles represent about $280 million of that contract.

The Navy has plans for 68 of the aircraft, Enewold said, and Northrop will build them all. There's also international interest, particularly from Australia.

The project represents "the next step in building the high-altitude, long-endurance capability for the Navy," Enewold said.

For Moss Point, he said, it represents a "steady stream of production," with the potential to add jobs down the road.

Jackson County Economic Development Foundation Director George Freeland said the center's growing product line and success is important for all of Jackson County.

"There's a lot going on in aerospace in our own backyard," he said. "The success here is validation -- for the workforce, the community and Jackson County as a whole -- that we can compete for aerospace industry.